Outcomes of the Africa Transport Safety Conference

The Africa Road Safety Conference was held in Accra, Ghana, from 5th-8th of February 2007.  The conference attracted over 180 participants, drawn from Governments, International Development Agencies, NGOs and the Private Sector. 

The conference was hosted by the Government of Ghana, and co-ordinated by among others the UN Economic Commission for Africa [ECA], the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.

IFRTD participated in the meeting as a member of the advisory committee to the conference. In addition IFRTD organised a panel on rural transport safety issues.  Results of case studies carried by IFRTD on various dimensions of rural transport safety were presented in a session attended by over 50 people. The studies and overall synthesis are available through http://www.ifrtd.org/new/proj/r_trans_safe.php

The conference culminated into the Accra Declaration, issued by Ministers in charge of Transport and Health in Africa. Among other things, the Ministers resolved: 

• To set and achieve measurable national targets for road safety and traffic-injury prevention in all Member States as a means to contributing to the achievement of Africa’s overall targets to reduce accidents fatalities by half by 2015.
• To convince governments to devote a percentage of their investments in infrastructure development to road safety programmes.
• To urge African countries to pay special attention to rural transport safety.

In this regard, countries need to ensure that adequate resources are provided for studies and data collection on rural dimensions of road safety and the implementation of the outcomes of such studies.

For more information please contact:

Dr Olive C. Kobusingye
Regional Advisor on Violence, Injuries, & Disabilities
WHO Regional Office for Africa
Harare, Zimbabwe
Telephone: +47-241-38266
Fax: +47-241-38004
E-mail: kobusingyeo@whoafr.org

April 23-29, 2007 will see the First United Nations Global Road Safety Week. For more information see: http://www.who.int/roadsafety/week/en/